Bishop Guertin girls lacrosse gets strong defensive effort to hold off Westford (video)

NASHUA - With half of a regular season's worth of games under the belt, the Bishop Guertin High School girls lacrosse team has learned what it needs to do in order to win games.

Against Westford Academy on Saturday, the Cardinals have followed a script that's worked pretty well for them through the first nine games.

Bishop Guertin got up by a couple of goals in the first half, stretched the lead to as many as seven early in the second half, and then held off a run by the Grey Ghosts for a 14-9 win at Stellos Stadium.

Claire Donovan led the way with four goals for the Cardinals (9-0) while Lindsay Hult had three goals and two assists and Madison Keating had three goals. Rylee Bouvier had a goal and an assist and Natalie Coutu added two goals while Abigail Ahearn had a goal and an assist.

"We played all right," Bishop Guertin coach Kerry Gobiel said. "Not our best lacrosse, but I think there were some great things happening on both ends of the field and we didn’t connect all the way through as a whole unit."

It was good enough to keep Westford (4-8) at a distance in the second half, particularly on the defensive end. The Grey Ghosts went on a 4-0 run to cut the Cardinals' lead to 12-9 with 5:48 to play, but it might have gotten closer except for the play of the Bishop Guertin defense and goalie Makenna Reekie.

"Lights out," Gobiel said of her goalie's performance. "Crucial to get defensive stops because if those kept turning into goals, then we might not have had the same score."

Westford got three goals and two assists from Mary Cadogan while Jennifer McLaughlin had two goals and Nicole O'Neil added a goal and two assists.

"I was super proud of my girls for coming against returning state champions," Westford coach Julie Olivier said. "They run a quality program, they’ve got excellent sticks, so we were prepared mentally for a tough game. I was proud of my team playing an even game in the second half. We had the draw control, we kept BG to only five goals in the second half and got on a really good run."

The Cardinals went up 7-2 with 9:30 left in the first half on a goal by Coutu and kept it a five-goal game going into the half on a goal by Donovan with 10.3 seconds remaining.

Hult and Keating scored less than two minutes apart to start the scoring in the second half, and after a goal by McLaughlin, Donovan scored against to give Bishop Guertin a 12-5 lead with 15:15 to go. But the Grey Ghosts won the draw and Cadogan scored 16 seconds later, and Westford won the next two draws and scored off them, making it 12-8 Cardinals with 12:03 to play.

Bishop Guertin controlled the ensuing draw, but after a turnover, Westford had two free-position opportunities; Reekie came up with a save on both attempts. But Syndney Todd was given a yellow card after the second stop and Morgan Freud scored for the Grey Ghosts just seven seconds after the penalty to make it 12-9.

Westford won the draw, but the Cardinals forced a turnover and Keating scored off a free position with 4:01 left to put Bishop Guertin back up four. Donovan finished out the scoring with 24.5 seconds remaining.

Bishop Guertin hosts Salem at 7:15 p.m. Monday at Presentation of Mary Academy in Hudson before hosting Bedford at 5 p.m. Thursday at Stellos Stadium.